+Melissa Posted August 17, 2010 Share Posted August 17, 2010 My Sailfin started showing ICH spots on her yesterday, and this morning I'm seeing more. My clowns are fine, so are all the blennies, or at least not showing spots. Is there a way to treat her in the tank? I have hermits and a conch snail too though. If the best way to treat her is in a QT, then I will have to set up one of my other tanks for now. I had to use it for a FW fish a while back and stored it when I was done. If I kept it bare bottom and put a few peices of LR in along with filling it with tank water, (filter and heater of course) how long would it be before I could add her in to start treatment? What treatment? I don't want to lose her. I have not added any fish, since I added the tang almost a month ago. But last week I did add a large "test" anemone. Would that have done it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesL Posted August 17, 2010 Share Posted August 17, 2010 The anemone could have brought the ich in water it had in it. Or it could just be stress. A quarantine tank would be good, but trying to catch the tang might stress it out more. I think Dave (dapettit) has suggested feeding algae sheets soaked in garlic before to help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NonSequitur Posted August 17, 2010 Share Posted August 17, 2010 As I understand it, the Ich parasite exists in most saltwater tanks, but tends to flare up from time to time, often in times of stress. Many people suggest supportive treatment (garlic extract to help encourage eating, careful maintenance of water quality), and the fish will often recover on their own, particularly if you can keep them eating. Now that the parasite is in the water chances are high that she'll get reinfected if you take her out and treat her. Others have more experience with this than I do, but other things that I've heard are helpful: UV sterilizer in the tank to kill the free-floating life stage of the parasite, freshwater dip for the fish (very stressful for the fish and very hard to watch, not recommended). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted August 17, 2010 Share Posted August 17, 2010 Given that your other fish aren't showing spots I wouldn't worry too much about what the source is. Healthy fish that are eating are usually able to fight off ich on their own. I just went through a minor outbreak when I added my purple tang. I attribute it to the stress of moving as no other fish in the tank got it. The purple kept eating and was active and a week later the ich was gone. Is your tang eating and swimming around? Is it rubbing itself on rocks trying to clean itself? If the answer is that it is still eating and swimming around then I would not remove it, QT it, or try to treat the ich. Catching the fish and moving it to a QT tank could produce enough stress to push it over the edge. So, if it is eating and swimming then I would just keep feeding it and make sure that it isn't in true distress. At the first sign of it lying on its side, not eating, or somehow otherwise acting like it is in peril then I would scoop it up and QT it in a tank, treating with formalyn per instructions. It's cheap and effective but you must follow the directions. I know you can pick up products with formalyn at Aquatek and AquaDome if it comes to that. Best of luck! How to treak Ich with formalyn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Melissa Posted August 17, 2010 Author Share Posted August 17, 2010 Thanks everyone. I really don't want to stress her out. I would hate to get her better in the QT, just to have her stress again when she went back home. She is not rubbing at all on rocks, sand, etc. She eats her Nori all day (much happier to see this come out of her than Chaeto strands), and still hoards the mysis like no tomorrow. She's always front and center, or playing in the caves and crevices or in the water flow coming from the power head. So I guess i can leave her in there for now. I do have a bottle of Fomalyn already on hand from treating my FW tanks for flukes so I will keep it nearby. Should I leave my lights on or keep them off? Should I increase the temp? I keep it at 78F. In my FW tanks, I when treated for ich, I just raised the temp to about 83, turned off the lights, and then covered the tank for a week. But I know SW is different in every way from FW. What kind of garlic? Is it the bottled liquid fish garlic? Or crushed whole cloves? Sorry I haven't soaked in garlic but once, and the fish didn't eat it lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NonSequitur Posted August 17, 2010 Share Posted August 17, 2010 I use kent garlic extreme, but I've heard the garlic extract from the grocery store (kyolic brand if memory serves me (and it often doesn't)) works just as well and costs less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dapettit Posted August 17, 2010 Share Posted August 17, 2010 Are the spots white or black? If thye are white: soak all food in Garlic Xtreme. If balck they need more veggies in there diet (1 sheet of nori every other day). Some will say it doesn't help but my tangs have benifited from it. Seems if you just look at them wrong they break out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NonSequitur Posted August 17, 2010 Share Posted August 17, 2010 I'm not sure if the marine ich lifecycle can be accelerated by higher temp like freshwater ich, but I just came across this article that might help: Reefkeeping article on marine ich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Melissa Posted August 17, 2010 Author Share Posted August 17, 2010 The spots are white. I do feed her the nori, aside from her only the lawnmower munches on it. I have the Nori from the grocery store, non flavored, and no sodium. Is that ok to use like the seaweed found at the LFS? Not sure how else to feed it to her, so I usually take about a 1/3 of the sheet and fold it like a paper fan, then in half and rubber band it to a rock and set it in her feeding spot. She ignored it for the first couple days and ate chaeto like spaghetti, and it came out the same way, which scared me. I thought it was worms, and it took me a few days to realize what it was. It was just coming out in clear strands. Now she just hovers and eats all day, then takes breaks to play in the current, then goes back to eating. How long should I leave it in there before it starts impacting the water quality? On a side note,I want to worm everyone. I got two engineer gobies at the same time, both at 2 inches. The little one never grew, literally. The other one, has hit over 6 inches already, and his pattern is really showing nicely now. I saw the small one listlessly swimming about, so I put a breeder box in, and scooped him out to observe him for a few days. Somehow he escaped and I haven't seen him since. Maybe he died in their cave and the hermits ate him. I don't know. But can I treat the whole tank with Prazi? Will it hurt my anemone or GSP or mushrooms? NS, thank you for the link to the article. I found it very informative. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted August 17, 2010 Share Posted August 17, 2010 Melissa, I would encourage you to get a UV sterilizer on your tank. If your tang is healthy and eating well there is a good chance it will recover on it's own. However, depending on how serious the infestation your tank has it may look like in a few days or so the problem has disappeared then as a 2nd or 3rd generation hatches out you may see everybody come down with it. Waiting to this point to put a sterilizer on your tank may save some fish, may not. Metronidiazole may work but I've had inconsistant results with it and while it hasn't killed any corals some did not open well when it was in the tank. Kick-Ich as I understand uses a variant of this. Keep in mind when getting a sterilizer to seriously oversize it. I've seen one small one marketted for 120 gal systems and it would work fine on that size tank for a algae or bacteria bloom but when you look at the flow rate needed to kill ich and take into consideration drop in output due to aging of the bulb I wouldn't use it on anything larger than a 30 gal system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted August 17, 2010 Share Posted August 17, 2010 That is a very good article NS, thanks for the link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Melissa Posted August 17, 2010 Author Share Posted August 17, 2010 Has anyone used Herbtana? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GKarshens Posted August 19, 2010 Share Posted August 19, 2010 How big is your tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Melissa Posted August 19, 2010 Author Share Posted August 19, 2010 <br />How big is your tank?<br /> Don't hate me, but a 20 gallon. I just about have our stand done for the 58 we got, and should have it starting to cycle withing the next week or so. After talking to Shane yesterday he suggested she may be stressed from the size tank. She doesn't show signs of stress at all, no pacing or fidgeting, hiding, flashing or anything. But I don't want her to start either, so the new tank is now #1 priority. The 58 is the biggest we can go for the next year. <br /> I did a water change yesterday and really rooted around to get it as clean as I could. I took out most of the rocks to get to more of the bottom. Later in the evening I went to feed, and since I didn't have the garlic extract yet, I took two cloves of garlic and ran them through a garlic press, then took some tank water in a glass and soaked the nori in there. When I put it in, she attacked it like it was crack. I still will get the extract, but have to wait until the weekend. I didn't notice any spots on her this morning when I turned the lights on. I know they are still there though, and I want her to be strong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GKarshens Posted August 19, 2010 Share Posted August 19, 2010 I have to hate. I am willing to bet it is stressed by the tank size. I am sorry to tell you that the 58 will still be way too small. That fish will get over a foot! They need at least a 125g or larger. I would suggest finding it a new home and trying another type of fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dapettit Posted August 19, 2010 Share Posted August 19, 2010 +1 with Gabe, but I don't hate. Ich is the stress signs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Melissa Posted August 19, 2010 Author Share Posted August 19, 2010 Well, I think I am going to have to take the advice and get rid of her. I guess I thought I had I would have enough time to grow her in the larger tank before we were able to get a more appropriate sized tank. Unless... I sold this tank, my new tank and another I have sitting around and can find a great deal on a 100+ gallon set up lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GKarshens Posted August 19, 2010 Share Posted August 19, 2010 Unless... I sold this tank, my new tank and another I have sitting around and can find a great deal on a 100+ gallon set up lol. Now that's the kind of thinking I like to see! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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